Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-03-Speech-1-056"
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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I particularly welcome this opportunity to say, before I start, that the Portuguese Government fully shares the sentiments expressed in the tribute paid to Mr Pflimlin, and that we too, wish to express our sincere condolences to his family and to his country.
To this, of the events of the last six months, we can add the entry of Greece into the euro and the decision taken at the Feira European Council on the tax package. This is not a final decision. It is merely the beginning of the end but we have been waiting for this beginning of the end for twelve years. This was incomprehensible in a Europe that has been able to develop a single market and a single currency that already includes most of the Union’s Members, but which has, until now, lacked any understanding of taxation, which is an essential component of any political and economic system.
We want a Europe which is able to compete coherently, but also a Europe which is politically stronger and more united. In this respect, I should like to emphasise the extremely important steps that have been taken in order to give credibility to our common European security and defence policy. Interim political and security committees and the interim military committee are up and running. Military staff have been appointed. The preparatory work will enable a forces management conference to be held in October. Rules for coordination of the European Union and NATO have been defined, as have methods for consultation at institutional level with the six NATO countries of the European Union and with the group of fifteen countries that comprises all the candidates for membership of the Union. The reforms will enable us to implement the decisions taken in Helsinki, since they will be further backed by the creation of the Committee for Civilian Crisis Management, which has already taken up its duties. These reforms will also be accompanied by a set of programmes also run in line with the methods of Civilian Crisis Management that we hope to see established by the police officers at the Union’s disposal, with the aim of having 5 000 officers by 2003. We hope to be able to deploy a thousand officers within the space of a month.
The common European security and defence policy is therefore a pillar of credibility for our political union, which naturally includes the institutional reform that was on the agenda of the Intergovernmental Conference. Over the last six months, the aim of the Council Presidency has been to work hard to ensure that the Conference’s work could be concluded before the end of the year, as this is essential for making the first round of enlargement possible. With this in mind, we focused particularly on a detailed report on the points arising from Amsterdam and we were able to include the issue of closer cooperation on the agenda. The Fifteen have finally reached consensus on this issue, something for which we have worked very hard and which we consider to be an extremely important condition for greater European integration within an enlarged but heterogeneous Europe.
At the same time, there is clearly a fundamental debate on Europe’s future. The Presidency sought to focus the IGC’s work on guaranteeing its success in order to allow enlargement to take place, but, clearly, none of us can ignore this debate. This applies to those who can see – and I am now speaking strictly as a Portuguese citizen – that our institutional model must be improved, without being changed radically, as well as to those who may hope for a shift towards an intergovernmental approach by the European Union. Personally, I shall continue to fight against this with all my strength…
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...but this also applies to those who feel that we need to take a new leap forwards in redefining the Union and to move directly towards European federalism.
We will always be receptive to this debate, but I would simply like to draw Parliament’s attention to one crucial aspect. No federal system in the world can be strictly political. No political federal power can forego a strong federal budget and strong federal competences.
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Therefore, a vague, abstract discussion at institutional level, which does not fully weigh up the financial and tax-related consequences of this federal model, is, in our opinion, a meaningless discussion. We are fully prepared for this discussion, but every aspect of it must be considered, because this is the only way in which it will make sense.
For the moment, however, what the Council Presidency has tried to do with regard to institutional matters over the last six months is to concentrate on establishing the appropriate conditions for enlargement. The work on enlargement has moved at a great pace over these six months. We were able to close 78 dossiers for negotiation with the candidate countries and open 52 dossiers for negotiation, and it must be emphasised that, in order to open a dossier for negotiation, the Fifteen Member States must reach a common position on the issue. With all the countries of the Luxembourg Group, all dossiers for negotiation are currently open, with the exception of institutional and various other matters. Even where the countries of the Helsinki Group are concerned, a significant number of dossiers have already been opened and many others have been closed. At this point, I must stress the extremely important and dynamic role played by the Commission in speeding up the pace of these negotiations.
In our vision of the world, in which we want Europe to be the leading architect of a new design for international relations, which is more balanced and more equitable, the Union clearly needs to maintain a very lively and active set of external relations. This is what we have tried to achieve over the last six months in close cooperation with the Commission, and speaking of the Commission, I would like to welcome Vice-President Patten’s presence here. There were two totally new events: the EU-Africa Summit and the high level Summit with India, the most heavily populated democracy in the world, which is now enjoying normal relations with the European Union at the highest possible level. There was all the work that enabled us to close negotiations on renewing the Lomé Convention and on the agreements with Mexico and South Africa, the opening of negotiations with Mercosur and extremely hard work on the Euro-Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern fronts. There has been action on fronts related to Asian and Pacific countries, in the transatlantic relationship, in the relationship with Russia, with other countries of Central and Eastern Europe and even with Central Asia. There has been progress in approving a common strategy for the Mediterranean and an action plan for the Nordic dimension of the European Union, which, in my opinion, combine perfectly to address the problems of both Northern and Southern Europe. This demonstrates that our vision is not unilateral and is not aimed in any particular geographical direction, but is based on a genuinely universal vision.
Throughout this period, of course, there has been a constant source of concern: the Balkans. This concern was exacerbated when, at the start of our work, we had, in addition to the magnitude of the problems that we were facing, the bitter taste of knowing that the international community itself was “balkanised” in its dealings with the Balkans. I would here like to pay tribute to the excellent cooperation of the High Representative, Javier Solana, and the Vice-President of the Commission, Christopher Patten, who ensured that the European Union was not balkanised, but instead, acted in a coordinated and integrated way in the Balkans during this time. The Union also managed to join the Stability Pact, which finally saw the necessary funds raised to be able to support countries and maintain coherent action in a whole range of extraordinarily complex situations which I do not have time go into here.
We know that we have a great deal of work ahead of us. We know that we are facing enormous obstacles, starting with the fact that Serbia is not a democratic State. This is a fundamental problem, which makes any strategy for the Balkans extremely difficult to implement. We also know, however, that we, the European Union, have not been balkanised and we are now acting in an integrated way. I would also like to thank Parliament for its efforts in solving the problem of financial support for Montenegro, which we felt was essential, in order to send a very clear message to all those who are trying to establish democracy in that area.
We also mentioned the problem of the area of citizenship in developments under the third pillar, following the Tampere Summit, with regard to the strategy on drugs and the external dimension of the this pillar. These are extremely important issues, such as immigration, which is a fundamental pillar of the development of our external relations and the way we see our societies developing over the next few years. I must, however, stress the work that is in progress on the Charter of Fundamental Rights, as this Charter is a milestone in the definition of European citizenship, citizenship which I would like us all to see in light of the values of the enlightenment. In other words, European citizenship should be seen in light of the values of political rationalism rather than some form of political populism, excessive nationalism, religious fundamentalism or demonstrations of xenophobia or racism. It is in this context that a sense of European citizenship has been perceived to emerge, and that is why we must forge ahead with the project for European civilisation.
I shall conclude, Madam President, by wishing President Chirac, who I am sure will be present in Parliament tomorrow, and the French Government, every success in their work leading the European Council for the next six months. I hereby assure you of the total cooperation of the Portuguese Government from this moment onwards.
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On behalf of the Portuguese Government, now that we no longer hold the Presidency of the Union’s Council, I should like to express my unequivocal gratitude for the exceptional cooperation that we have seen between Parliament and the Council. This cooperation was a result of the great commitment shown by this institution. I should like to highlight the crucial contribution made from the outset by Parliament so that the Intergovernmental Conference would be able to open on time. I also wish to highlight the fact that the conciliation procedure for the framework directive on water was pursued up to the very last minute, up to the very last opportunity for conciliation, and, as a result of your understanding, was concluded successfully.
Now that these six months are over, I think that we can say quite simply that we have fulfilled our duty. We have fulfilled our duty towards a European ideal and on the basis of our view of the world today and its problems. Today’s world is politically unstructured and is therefore incapable of fully guaranteeing that peace, stability, human rights and democracy hold sway. The world has become global in terms of the economy and the markets but it has not yet found a way of regulating this global market and economy. It is furthermore a world in which we Europeans sometimes feel, in certain fundamental areas of technological development and technological change, that we are simply marking time and that we have been left behind to some extent compared to other parts of the world which appear to have been more dynamic over the last few years.
Hence the various elements of our strategy for these last six months. Our first priority was to work on creating the right conditions to make the European Union the world’s most dynamic and competitive economic area, based on knowledge, within the next ten years. We will achieve this through high levels of employment, economic growth and social cohesion. The second part of our strategy was to strengthen political union in Europe, on the basis of our universal values and by cementing Europe’s role as the leading architect of a new design for international relations, one that is more multipolar, more balanced and more equitable. The third and final element was to improve the lot of our citizens and to improve the area of European citizenship because, ultimately, any strategy must always be drawn up and implemented for the good of the people.
Let us focus for a moment on the first objective I mentioned, that of making Europe the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economic area in the world in the next decade. This was the main reason for holding the Lisbon Summit, the objectives of which I presented in this Chamber. I think that I can say that these objectives have been fully achieved. We feel that we have defined a strategy creating conditions which make sustainable growth of at least 3% possible in Europe and which will enable us to reach a level of employment of around 70% in ten years. This is an essential foundation for sustaining our own systems of social protection and is based on four fundamental pillars. The first involves preparing the European Union for the knowledge-based economy through mechanisms which will facilitate action for the information society, for science and technology and for training and education. The second pillar consists of achieving the economic reforms that are essential to competitiveness and innovation, through expanding the process of economic reforms necessary to create a fully integrated internal market and through new policies for innovation and business. Thirdly, we must strengthen the pillar of social cohesion, based on employment, on reform to make our social protection models sustainable and on combating social exclusion. Finally, the fourth pillar consists of coordinating macroeconomic policies in order to guarantee both the stability that we have already achieved which has provided a basis for the euro, with low inflation, low public deficits and also a macroeconomic environment which is more favourable to growth, employment, innovation and entrepreneurship.
These four elements of the strategy have already produced tangible results. As a result of the excellent cooperation developed with the Commission, the Santa Maria da Feira European Council has already considered the action plan for the information society, the first set of decisions on the European Scientific Area, certain crucial aspects of promoting our policy for businesses – the European Charter for Small Enterprises – the multiannual programme and a whole range of other measures that have been planned for reforming the markets, particularly the financial markets. These include the European Investment Bank’s Initiative 2000 for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and the Information Society, and the High Level Group reports on the sustainability of our social protection systems and on combating social exclusion, which have already lead to a working Social Protection Committee. Finally, the Council has considered the Commission initiative on combating exclusion.
What this shows is that the Lisbon strategy was not merely a one-off, but is being rapidly implemented, and we must highlight the extremely important role that the Council is playing at the moment. As well as a strategy, we have defined an open method of coordination which is so extensive that it covers everything from policies on the information society, science, education, training and combating poverty, to policies on business, innovation and economic reforms. At the same time, this coordination will also cover the revision of our schemes and systems for social protection, employment, and fundamental concerns about cohesion. We have defined an open method of coordination in all of these areas, with the opportunity to establish guidelines at European level, with indicators for benchmarking that are currently being selected, with national initiatives that can be compared and coordinated and with the ability, therefore, to bring about the convergence of economic and social policies at Union level, in an open form of coordination that represents a fundamentally innovative development in the functioning of the Union.
This coordination is also being supported by a strong desire for political leadership at the highest level with regard to economic and social reforms. Hence our decision to hold a European Council meeting every spring which, on the basis of a set of indicators of structural change that are chosen by the Commission and of a report by the Commission itself, the European Council can set the main priorities in the field of economic and social policy each year. The Council would thereby demonstrate the political leadership which is crucial to the work of all the other Council bodies and of the various committees."@en1
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